A propagating experiment!

Whenever I tell someone that I’m propagating my plants, they give me this look. Like I must be out of my mind. Or they have this impression that propagating plants is something that only ‘experts’ can do. Neither of which are true (I am not out of my mind, and propagating plants is something that any plant owner can, and should, do!).

Propagating plants is EASY! It’s just a fancy way of saying that you are growing a new plant from the cutting of a plant that already exists. Does that sound complicated? It’s not! In fact, it’s super simple.

There are just a few things you need to keep in mind:

It’s best to start with a healthy “mother” plant. You’re not going to want to propagate from a plant that is struggling, so avoid any of your plants that have recently had significant change, or don’t look as good as they used to.

The easiest plants to propagate are the ones that grow quickly.

Timing is important. While you can propagate any time of year, Spring is really the best time to do it because plants are coming out of their dormant state and are ready to get growing.

There are a plethora of articles floating around online covering the “How To” of plant propagation, so I’m not gonna give you the nitty gritty here (but I will share some useful links at the bottom of this post).

What I am gonna to show you is my little propagation experiment (!) and the successes that I’ve recently had, which will hopefully inspire you to give it a try.

The Experiment!

Meet Verdginia (verde + virginia). She is the first plant I ever owned and is responsible for starting my plant obsession 10 years ago. She is a Pothos (botanical name: epipremnum aureum), otherwise known as Devil’s Ivy, and is (in my opinion) one of the 5 easiest plants to keep alive. Not only that, she is by far the EASIEST plant I have ever propagated.

This past winter my poor Verdginia had a rough month, and one of her vines lost most of it’s middle leaves. Once she was in recovery mode, I decided to do some pruning, but instead of throwing out the portion of the vine without leaves, I decided to see if I could get it to regenerate.

I cut the vine into 3 pieces. Two of which were about 5 inches in length and had 3 – 4 nodes on each. Nodes are those bumps/notches that cover the length of the vine. I stuck the cut pieces of the vine into a mason jar and filled it with tap water. I made sure to submerge at least two nodes on each vine under the water, because this is where the roots will grow.

I regret not taking photos of the earliest phase. But once things started to grow, I made sure to snap a few pics:

Can you see the growing little leaves at the top?! Can you imagine my utter excitement when I realized it was actually working?!?! At one point these two pieces were all part of the same vine, and now, they are growing into their own, individual plants! OMG! And then the roots started to grow:

Isn’t nature INCREDIBLE? The answer is YES! Yes, it is. Plants have an ability to regenerate all parts if given the right conditions (sun + water is all it takes!). Once roots are established, your plant is ready for soil. I would encourage every plant parent to take the leap and give it a try!

Wanna see what else I’m propagating? Take a peak at some of my successes: